WG offering short rental of San Diego to NA server.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-2023/ 

Offer good to 28 August; ship disappears after 3 days or 5 battles.

EU/Asia server members - it would be interesting to know if you guys got a similar, server-restricted offer. 

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

15 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-2023/ 

Offer good to 28 August; ship disappears after 3 days or 5 battles.

EU/Asia server members - it would be interesting to know if you guys got a similar, server-restricted offer. 

Only a 10 point commander?

Pass.

For only five battles, they might as well make it a 16 or 21 point commander to even perk my interest.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

2 minutes ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

For only five battles, they might as well make it a 16 or 21 point commander to even perk my interest.

You mean you haven't already taken the time to develop one of your own?

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

14 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

You mean you haven't already taken the time to develop one of your own?

By that reasoning, why did WG offer a captain at all?

Look, I get you want to sell me on this rental...I'm not interested...for the reasons I stated.

Arguing with me about it is likely to make me LESS interested.

[Monalie477]

Nothing offered in the EU so far.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

5 minutes ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

By that reasoning, why did WG offer a captain at all?

Why do YOU think?

I know you've been in this game for quite some time, but new players might not have been. So WG is giving them a commander to at least be functional with during the trial period. If you've already got better than a 10 pointer for the US, this one should be no skin off your nose. If you're so new to US ships that you haven't yet developed one, it's more than you already have (albeit briefly).

Turning your nose up at this offer just because WG won't give you a high-point loan captain to go in the ship doesn't paint you in the best light. 

[Verblonde]

52 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

EU/Asia server members - it would be interesting to know if you guys got a similar, server-restricted offer.

Nah, not seeing it on EU either. Mind you, it does say words to the effect of 'NA only' on the relevant news story.

(I did wonder briefly if I wasn't seeing anything on my EU account because I have SD already on that account.)

[Frostbow]

But why? Why all of a sudden Wargaming is offering rental for San Diego? And only for NA server? 

Rich was the discussion about the concept of rental ships—premium ships to be offered as rentals, for free—when the old forum was still alive. If I remember it correctly, not a few proposed or called for this.

And so after what seemed to be an eternity of silence from the sales and marketing geniuses at Wargaming, they suddenly offer this, out of the blue.

What gives? I suspect this is symptomatic of a revenue problem/challenge.

 

[Verblonde]

2 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

What gives? I suspect this is symptomatic of a revenue problem/challenge.

You've probably hit the nail on the head: we're in - in theory - the warmest bit of summer, with not that long to go before the Young People return to school etc. I imagine a large(ish) chunk of the player base are busy outside doing far more sensible things than playing computer games.

Historically, player numbers (and presumably therefore spend) have tended to drop in the summer; I imagine this is part of WG's regular 'please play our games' summer activities. My guess is that it's a bit of a data-gathering exercise too, hence NA only...?

[Verblonde]

5 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

Rich was the discussion about the concept of rental ships—premium ships to be offered as rentals, for free—when the old forum was still alive. If I remember it correctly, not a few proposed or called for this.

On the specific subject of rentals, I suspect they may be a bit of a double-edged sword for WG: their current strategy seems to revolve around attracting as many newbies as possible, with negligible focus on actually learning the game; that sort of consumer can probably be sold expensive premiums in hope of them magically improving their results (we old lags all know that's nonsense, but newbies probably not so much).

The problem with a rental is that it gives a potential customer a wonderful opportunity to discover that - for them - the shiny expensive premium doesn't make a blind bit of difference, and so it may well become a less attractive buying proposition.

Presumably this SD rental is an attempt to gather some data apropos sales rates, and how they vary if you do give a rental?

[Frostbow]

15 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

You've probably hit the nail on the head: we're in - in theory - the warmest bit of summer, with not that long to go before the Young People return to school etc. I imagine a large(ish) chunk of the player base are busy outside doing far more sensible things than playing computer games.

Historically, player numbers (and presumably therefore spend) have tended to drop in the summer; I imagine this is part of WG's regular 'please play our games' summer activities. My guess is that it's a bit of a data-gathering exercise too, hence NA only...?

Yes, it could be they are testing the waters with a seasonal offering for rentals, because, yes, rentals could also be a double-edged sword for their revenues.

[Verblonde]

1 minute ago, Frostbow said:

yes, rentals could also be a double-edged sword for their revenues.

For instance, imagine if they gave a rental out for - say - Siliwangi, or Cheshire maybe; I can't imagine too many folk will play such rental ships and immediately declare loudly and from the rooftops, "By Jingo, that's the premium ship for me; I'll buy this instead of that shiny AAA game I was looking at previously!"...

[Ensign Cthulhu]

31 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

If I remember it correctly, not a few proposed or called for this.

And so after what seemed to be an eternity of silence from the sales and marketing geniuses at Wargaming, they suddenly offer this, out of the blue.

What gives?

You (the general, plural you) got something you asked for. You can scratch your head and look for ulterior motives or you can say "Look, we got the result we wanted! Let's use it!"

20 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

The problem with a rental is that it gives a potential customer a wonderful opportunity to discover that - for them - the shiny expensive premium doesn't make a blind bit of difference, and so it may well become a less attractive buying proposition.

If even a few people try it out and like it enough to buy it, it's paid for itself. It's not like they sent out physical free samples or anything.

20 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

their current strategy seems to revolve around attracting as many newbies as possible, with negligible focus on actually learning the game

The player has to be motivated to learn, and last I looked, WG had a whole host of how it works videos - not to mention the enormous amount of player-created content out there. If they refuse to even go looking for any of this, they were NEVER going to learn. 

I was watching Jingles videos for I don't know how long before I eventually downloaded the game and got cracking. My learning started before my playing did. Perhaps I represent the opposite extreme from the near-mythical IDGAF player who gets to Tier 10 and still sails his BB in straight lines while glued to the binocular view, but exactly where the truth lies in between is up for debate. Evidently SOME people want to learn, or content creators like @Lord_Zath wouldn't have an audience. 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Ensign Cthulhu

[Frostbow]

1 minute ago, Verblonde said:

For instance, imagine if they gave a rental out for - say - Siliwangi, or Cheshire maybe; I can't imagine too many folk will play such rental ships and immediately declare loudly and from the rooftops, "By Jingo, that's the premium ship for me; I'll buy this instead of that shiny AAA game I was looking at previously!"...

If they rent out a Cheshire—and that ship has a huge and very vulnerable citadel—they'd say, "What the hell, they want us to rent this piece of crap!" LOL

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

34 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Why do YOU think?

I know you've been in this game for quite some time, but new players might not have been. So WG is giving them a commander to at least be functional with during the trial period. If you've already got better than a 10 pointer for the US, this one should be no skin off your nose. If you're so new to US ships that you haven't yet developed one, it's more than you already have (albeit briefly).

Turning your nose up at this offer just because WG won't give you a high-point loan captain to go in the ship doesn't paint you in the best light. 

My post covered my personal assessment of the offer.

Other people might value it differently.

Your clumsy attempt to paint my personal assessment as some kind of 'not in good faith' post is fascinating...but irrelevant.

I don't think it's an interesting offering.

[Frostbow]

Just now, Ensign Cthulhu said:

You (the general, plural you) got something you asked for. You can scratch your head and look for ulterior motives or you can say "Look, we got the result we wanted! Let's use it!"

You may cite the plural form, but I'm here to tell you point blank that I did not ask for it.

Moreover, a rational man will consider all sides, including the ones not covered by the press release statement. You may find it as looking for "ulterior" motives, but that is just mere due diligence for us who are comfortable and accustomed to having a much larger perspective—one that does not kowtow to Wargaming.

[Verblonde]

4 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

this piece of crap

Behold the sheer majesty:

(Yes, I need help! In my defence, I rather enjoy messing about in Coop with Cheshires; they're a lot less dreadful when not facing real people, who know what a citadel is.)

[Asym]

40 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

But why? Why all of a sudden Wargaming is offering rental for San Diego? And only for NA server? 

Rich was the discussion about the concept of rental ships—premium ships to be offered as rentals, for free—when the old forum was still alive. If I remember it correctly, not a few proposed or called for this.

And so after what seemed to be an eternity of silence from the sales and marketing geniuses at Wargaming, they suddenly offer this, out of the blue.

What gives? I suspect this is symptomatic of a revenue problem/challenge.

 

BECAUSE..........no one is interested in it at all.....

[Verblonde]

7 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

If even a few people try it out and like it enough to buy it, it's paid for itself. It's not like they sent out physical free samples or anything.

Exactly. That's why I referred to this as a data-gathering exercise. In my Real Life, I - more or less - sell stuff for a living via various means and media, and arguments about the effectiveness of given promotional mechanics are a perennial feature of such industries. Ultimately, the only effective why to resolve such arguments definitively is to test the concept and see what happens.

I assume this is what WG are up to here, especially since they've picked a sub-set of the overall market.

(Naturally, once the results are in, I'm sure whole new arguments will break out apropos *why* the results turned out however they did - it's Traditional.)

[Verblonde]

4 minutes ago, Asym said:

BECAUSE..........no one is interested in it at all.....

Really? I thought there was some excitement on the NA server at least when she hove into view (although I do recall some bad temper over in-development nerfing)? I may be mis-remembering though...

[Nevermore135]

51 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

But why? Why all of a sudden Wargaming is offering rental for San Diego? And only for NA server? 

San Diego had a troubled development history. There were a lot of strong opinions about the way WG chose to (and chose not to) implement her. My guess is that she wasn’t quite the slam dunk that WG was hoping for with such a famous American ship (hence the NA exclusivity) and WG is hoping to sell her to those who passed on her until now.

4 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Really? I thought there was some excitement on the NA server at least when she hove into view (although I do recall some bad temper over in-development nerfing)? I may be mis-remembering though...

People were excited for a ship named “San Diego,” but there was a lot of drama around her implementation (and the subsequent changes) involving both the Devs and CMs. As I stated above, I expect this offer is targeted at players like myself who would have likely purchased the the ship in a heartbeat of the concept was a bit different or the ship wasn’t colored by the those events. It’s just another example of “but if only you tried it” thinking.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Nevermore135

[Efros]

It was through a similar offer where you could get rentals for silver a number of years ago that I experienced Bayard and it convinced me to buy her.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

Little White Mouse got upset that San Diego wasn't exactly what LWM wanted her to be, and opined on the basis of numbers on the page that WG would never be able to get the ship right.

In its release form, the ship per se was well received on the basis of its merits. 

[Efros]

My experience with her is that the SAP is a little disappointing.

[Verblonde]

3 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

In its release form, the ship per se was well received on the basis of its merits.

FWIW I rather like her (although I almost never play CLs against real people, because I suck in them); she's - IMO - fun, but not essential.

I can imagine that the HE to SAP adjustment (especially if - per @Efros - the SAP is sketchy) might cause some distress though. I found it fine for bots, but a proper player in a proper game mode might well have a different experience.